Introduction to SPSS

(Version 16)

Topics we will cover today

SPSS at a glance
Basic Structure of SPSS Cleaning your data

Descriptive Statistics
Charts Data manipulation Other Resources

SPSS at a glance
SPSS stands for Statistical Package for the Social

Sciences
SPSS was made to be easier to use then other

statistical software like S-Plus, R, or SAS.

The newest version of SPSS is SPSS 17.0. Today we

will be working on SPSS 16.0.

How to open SPSS

Go to START Click on PROGRAMS Click on SPSS INC Click on SPSS 16.0 The computers in the CSSCR lab typically have SPSS on

the desktop. It is a red box that says SPSS on the top.

Opening a data file

Click on FILE OPEN DATA Click MY COMPUTER LOCAL DISK C:/ Click PROGRAM FILES SPSS Click TUTORIAL SAMPLE FILES Select CATALOG.SAV

Basic structure of SPSS

There are two different windows in SPSS 1st Data Editor Window - shows data in two forms

Data view Variable view

2nd Output viewer Window shows results of data

analysis

*You must save the data editor window and output viewer window

separately. Make sure to save both if you want to save your changes in data or analysis.*

Data view vs. Variable view

Data view Rows are cases Columns are variables
Variable view Rows define the variables

Name, Type, Width, Decimals, Label, Missing, etc. Scale age, weight, income Nominal categories that cannot be ranked (ID number) Ordinal categories that can be ranked (level of satisfaction)

Cleaning your data missing data

There are two types of missing values in SPSS:

system-missing and user-defined.

function cannot be performed.

System-missing data is assigned by SPSS when a

For example,

dividing a number by zero. SPSS indicates that a value is system-missing by one period in the data cell.

Cleaning your data missing data

User-defined missing data are values that the researcher can tell SPSS

to recognize as missing. For example, 9999 is a common user-defined missing value. To define a variables user-defined missing value

Look at your variables in VARIABLE VIEW Find the column labeled MISSING Find the variable that you would like to work

with. Select that variables missing cell by clicking on the gray box in the right corner. click DISCRETE MISSING VALUES enter 9999 to define this variables missing value
A range can also be used if you only

want to use half of a scale.

Cleaning your data missing data cont.

When you have missing data in your data set, you

can fill in the missing data with surrounding information so it does not affect your analysis.
click TRANSFORM click REPLACE MISSING VALUES select the variable with missing

values and move it to the right using the arrow SPSS will rename and create a new variable with your filled in data. click METHOD to select what type of method you would like SPSS to use when replacing missing values. click OK and view your new data in data view

Descriptive Statistics
Lets say we are interested in

learning more about the number of customer service representatives (service).

Click ANALYZE Click DESCRIPTIVE

STATISTICS

Click FREQUENCIES Choose service from the list.

Descriptive Statistics continued

Lets learn more about the number of

catalogs mailed (mail).

Click ANALYZE Click DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS Click DESCRIPTIVES Move MAIL over with the arrow
Click OPTIONS we can choose which statistics we are interested in

looking at

We should remember that these descriptive statistics will not always

make sense for every variable. For example, we should not be asking for the mean of nominal variables like gender or race.

Graphing Data
Click GRAPH Click CHART BUILDER Click HISTOGRAM Put MEN on the X axis. Click ELEMENT PROPERTIES. Check

the box labeled DISPLAY NORMAL CURVE. This will impose a normal curve onto your graph. You can also change the style of your graph in this element properties window. into word and excel files.

You can copy and paste these graphs

Graphing Continued
There are other ways to make

graphs.
Click ANALYZE Click DESCRIPTIVE

STATISTICS Click FREQUENCIES Click services Click CHART Click BAR CHART Click PERCENTAGES

Data manipulation select cases

By selecting cases,

the researcher can select only certain cases for analysis click DATA click SELECT CASES click RANDOM SAMPLE OF CASES select your preferences

Data manipulation compute new variable

Computing new variables create a

new variable from multiple variables

click TRANSFORM click COMPUTE fill in the new target variable

TOTALSALES fill in numeric expression = men+women+jewel create an IF statement by clicking on the IF button click INCLUDE IF CASE SATISFIES CONDITION enter condition MAIL>10000

This new variable TOTALSALES tells us what the total sales are for

catalogs which mailed over 10,000 catalogs.

Data manipulation in action!

Try creating another variable for

TOTALSALES2 for catalogs which mailed under 10,000 catalogs.

Try comparing the descriptive statistics of

TOTALSALES and TOTALSALES2.

What did you find?

Data manipulation recode a variable

Recoding allows a researcher to create a new

variable with a different set of parameters click TRANSFORM click RECODE INTO DIFFERENT VARIABLE
move mail over to

the right

create a name for

the new variable mailcategories NEW VALUES

click OLD AND

Data manipulation recode a variable cont.

click RANGE

to create ranges of old values click VALUE to create a new value for that range

Data manipulation in action!

Try recoding another variable on your

own.
Try finding the descriptive statistics of

your new variable.

Data manipulation create a dummy variable

Dummy variables is a variable that has a value of

either 0 or 1 to show the absence or presence of some categorical effect

To create a dummy

variable click TRANSFORM click RECODE INTO DIFFERENT VARIABLE click OLD AND NEW VALUES click RANGE to create range of old values click VALUE to set new value to 0 or 1

What we have learned!

SPSS at a glance

Basic Structure of SPSS

Cleaning your data missing data Descriptive Statistics frequencies,

descriptive statistics Charts Data manipulation select cases, recoding, dummy variables

Other Resources
There are many resources online to help you learn

SPSS (tutorials, blogs, etc.)

CSSCR has a Quicktime SPSS class on its website

CSSCR offers SPSS handouts which are also on its

website

CSSCR offers classes on SPSS each quarter come

back for the SPSS Beyond the Basics class!